One for Cards

Chapter Four

14/12/19, 9PM GMT:

1. It's not Friday. One For Cards gets updated on Friday. It's Sunday/almost Sunday.
2. I have not updated One For Cards in a couple of weeks.
3. I'm in a hotel room halfway across the world.
4. I just updated Sirius Rising.
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"EARL ARBOUGH," SHE GREETED, GRINNING PLAYFULLY AT HIM AS HE COCKED AN eyebrow at her. Amusement sparkled in his eye; she could feel it in her own, too. She hadn't been this happy in a while. She was glad that he was here. With him around, she realised, she could forget – at least for a little while.

    "Who told you?" He smiled wryly at her, seeming surprised but not bothered. He took his jacket off and hung it over the chair the chaperone usually sat in. Winter was setting in, and quickly, but Addie's fireplace always made the room too hot because there weren't any windows. "I don't recall telling anyone in Altarc about it, but tongues always wag. Did you hear about it in school?—God forbid I've had dinner with one of your classmates..."

    The idea of Mr Williams having dinner with anyone in her class felt odd, but Addie chose not to comment on it.

    "You'll know in due course, my lord," she said cryptically, sitting down behind her desk. She wanted, more than anything, to explain everything to him there and then and ask him on the spot. She would love to have him as private secretary, almost as much as she would dislike having his stuffy uncle, Duke Westbrook who'd failed to produce a remotely satisfactory report.

    She hadn't told her parents about her intentions yet, and, for the past two weeks, the King had lined up a series of meetings with other candidates hoping to fill the role; but from the minute she'd realised that she only wanted Charles Williams to do it, everyone else in the running hadn't stood a chance.

    Presently, he eyed her suspiciously. "What are you plotting, Miss Smith?"

    Miss Smith. The name stung, but then she heard the King's words in her head. Her father's words, she was beginning to admit. However much she resented the secrecy that surrounded her childhood, secrecy so well-hidden that she herself had known nothing about it, it was hard not to acknowledge that deep down she had always yearned for a father, and now that wish had been granted.

    It is yours.

    Even when it was just in her mind, the timbre of his voice prompted obedience, and she forced herself not to brood.

    "Nothing," she said innocuously. "Shall we begin with the lesson proper?"

    They did. As always, she watched him lecture, and taking notes was – as usual – a secondary activity. He fascinated her in more ways than one; she was not stupid, or ignorant to her own feelings, and she knew the way she felt about him. She also knew that it would never come to anything, given the pinched look that had always come over her mother's face whenever Addie had praise for Mr Williams. Earl or not, her mother disapproved; and if the stories about King James's devotion to his Queen were true, her father might too.

    "Are you listening to me, Miss Smith? Great Britain has always been a crucial Lastyrian ally. Our relationship with them is very important, and you seem distracted." His tone was chiding, but nothing to hurt her, only a kindly reminder that she should pay closer attention.

    "Of course I am," she said, then added mischievously, "my lord."

    He withheld a chortle. It was clear he cared for her in some capacity, but... Admiring the fire in his eyes, she only wondered if he could possibly reciprocate.